This work was made in collaboration with contemporary dancer and choreographer Madz DeRose. Manual Selection/Automated Choreography is an experimental video that explores the relationship between movement, isolation, and technology. The choreography displayed is not only shown through shadows and movement but also within the editing process of a digital product. How we define movement and dance is altered through the ways in which we modify and showcase it. The virtual world can limit our human connection and physicality, altering the way we curate our given creative dialect. How the process can become the body of work is a core element behind this deconstructed piece. Manual Selection/Automated Choreography displays single-frame images of a filmed performance done in a constrained space. The process of editing the footage, selecting and deleting frames in itself creates a new animation of choreographic movement. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, performative arts have had to find a new home in virtual space. This collaboration between dancer, shadow and technology explores this artistic isolation and the possibilities of an alternative process during these uncertain times.
This video was projected outside of St.Laurent Metro station in Montreal, Quebec throughout the month of May 2021 as a part of a larger group film titled Hereafter in collaboration with the CPC and Quartier Des Spectacles.
Forrest Russell 